Bringing customers back to a brand is often accomplished through retargeting vs remarketing campaigns in the digital marketing world. Though these terms are commonly used interchangeably, they are unique strategies relevant to key objectives. I know that distinguishing between retargeting and remarketing will be fundamental for business owners to make them worthwhile in digital marketing. This blog will explain what each strategy means, how they can be distinguished, and how to apply both strategies effectively for sustainable growth in business.
The What and Why of Retargeting
Retargeting will still be one of the most powerful digital marketing tactics targeting users that went to a website or interacted with content but did nothing more. Through remarketing campaigns, these users are encouraged to return to the website through customized ads, completing a desired action.
In simple terms, retargeting works on a browser cookie basis that keeps records of your user journey on the website. Using this data, businesses are able to serve ads to users in display networks, social media, and search engines.
Simply put, retargeting keeps businesses at the forefront of mind for customers that visited a certain product or service. This method plays on the fact that most users are not going to convert on their first visit to a site and statistically need multiple touchpoints before making a commitment. For example, a user that visits an online store and views product pages without buying is served ads for those products later on. These reminders serve as gentle nudges for the user to come back and complete their purchase.
However, when businesses overdo it and set their campaigns to show ads on a repeat loop, retargeting can come off as invasive, if not just plain annoying. There was so much of this repetition that users experienced ad fatigue and started to get annoyed, just ignoring or blocking the ad.
But businesses are learning from the mistakes of the past and now using what is known as frequency capping so consumers do not get bombarded with the same ad. Furthermore, enhanced audience segmentation enables companies to serve more relevant ads so that users can have a positive experience with the brand while they are being reengaged.
What is Remarketing and Why It Can Help You?
Remarketing is different from retargeting code, even if using the same type of interaction; it is more particularly targeted at past customers or leads that have made contact with a brand and have often been exposed to an email. Remarketing, as the name implies, is email-driven and ultimately targeted at those who have already shown some form of loyalty, such as signing up for your newsletter, creating an account with you, or abandoning a shopping cart so it is quite different from retargeting, which is primarily cookie-based and served through different networks.
How it responds to users is that these marketing campaigns of remarketing help in sending out personalized email messages to the user to motivate him or her towards completing a purchase and also return back to the website. A shopper who adds many items to his or her shopping cart but never clicks the button to make a purchase will perhaps receive a reminder email with some kind of discount code in it ordered in step 4 above encouraging him to visit again and place an order. When it comes to remarketing, the emails can be customized based on how a particular user behaved and what they showed more interest in.
The advantages of remarketing are massive, especially when it comes to building customer loyalty and initial repurchase. Remarketing holds strong conversion potential as it targets users that have already had some interaction with the brand in any way. Whereas traditional marketing emails are typically sent to large and diverse audiences, remarketing emails can be much more targeted and relevant, so they tend to lead to higher engagement.
Remarketing campaigns are used to generate spam complaints because businesses would blast emails without regard to user preference. Remarketing was now seen in a bad light, leading to unsubscribing and low opens at our end. In return, businesses are focusing on permission-based email marketing, wherein only users who have given you consent receive emails. More importantly, today, remarketing campaigns consist of relevant, personalized content eventually turning emails into something that you don´t think of as an annoying message but more like a reminder.
What are the differences between retargeting and remarketing?
The line between retargeting and remarketing is an important one for brands to consider as they flesh out their digital marketing approach moving forward. While these two methods have a very similar objective, which is to bring back potential customers that might be lost, they use different channels and are applied in distinctive ways. Below are the main differences:
- Communication Channel: Digital ads on Google’s Display Network, Facebook Ads, and other third-party partner sites. These ads are shown based on the previous browsing history of users. On the other hand, remarketing mainly uses email to contact those who interacted with the brand. And the medium through whom they relate to each strategy can impact the way they react.
- Retargeting uses cookies to track visitors on a site and display ads after they leave. This allows businesses to serve advertisements to users who recently visited certain pages or took specific actions, according to that data-driven approach. Whereas remarketing simply retargets users by email. Remarketing allows brands to follow up with potential customers using personal information, such as user sign-ups, account creation, or previous purchases.
- Level of Personalization: Remarketing is usually more personalized than retargeting. Businesses can provide personalized messages, discounts, or product recommendations based on the specific user interactions through emails. Retargeting, although it can show a user the specific product or page they visited, tends to provide less granular personalization because of how wide repurposed ad networks are.
- Audience Intent: Most of the people you are retargeting will have a higher customer journey level, signing up for an account, entering a mailing list, or abandoning the cart process. Those users have higher engagement intent, which makes them more likely to convert. Retargeting, on the other hand, can speak to a much wider cross-section of users new and returning visitors alike, as well as those who have bought from you in the past but need a little nudge to come back.
- Conversion Objectives: The specific objective of a retargeting campaign is to convert the user back to the website actions such as purchasing and filling out forms. Conversely, the core theory of remarketing revolves around establishing customer retention and target-based marketing in a personal way to ensure loyalty among customers. All in all, both strategies are important when it comes to digital marketing, as they cater for different purposes alongside the conversion funnel.
- Location and Frequency: Instead of showing up to users in one type of environment, like a certain social media site or e-commerce site, retargeting ads can appear on third-party sites, giving businesses the opportunity to reach potential customers wherever they may be online. An email to people who have recently purchased from you, for example, a remarking email, is sent at certain intervals and is mostly not frequency controlled. Retargeting is a reminder: you see them when browsing on the web, whereas remarketing is direct marketing that lands in the inbox most likely at predetermined intervals or after a specific event.
Knowing these differences is vital to helping businesses decide on the most suitable approach to utilize with customers, which can yield higher customer engagement and sales.
Selecting the Appropriate Strategy for Your Corporate Growth
Deciding whether to use retargeting vs remarketing, or both for your business will come down to your goals, audience, and resources if you want to invest in a stronger digital marketing program. Both approaches have their own unique advantages, and using the right strategy for your business will help improve customer engagement and drive sustainable growth.
When to Use Retargeting:
Retargeting is for companies that want to bring back potential leads that held interest but didn’t become committed customers. For instance, e-commerce companies can serve retargeting ads that display items people looked at on their site or left in their cart. This tactic will work particularly well for brands who have relatively high website traffic; it serves to remind users who may not be ready to purchase immediately. Finally, retargeting will work wonderfully for businesses with several audience segments since they can adjust the ads based on certain products or services that attract each segment.
Remarketing is best utilized by businesses that are building customer loyalty and have long-term growth plans. Targeting users who have already taken actions like subscribing to attenders or signing up for accounts, businesses can craft personalized emails with special deals or related product recommendations. It can be quite useful for service-based businesses or SaaS businesses where you want to cultivate relationships and have the user return repeatedly. This type of marketing targets a specific group, making it easier for the company to generate loyalty and retain customers.
Best of Both Worlds: More often than not, businesses will find that a mixture of retargeting and remarketing can help target users at all levels of the funnel for maximum success. An eCommerce brand, for instance, may retarget users to bring them back to the site and then use a remarketing email sequence for individuals that added products to their cart but did not purchase. By leveraging both strategies, businesses can create a seamless and integrated experience that cultivates prospects into leads, ultimately leading to conversions.
There are historical examples of those companies that relied to a fault on one avenue and, in the process, missed out on better results through careful execution across another channel. Through the use of retargeting and remarketing working together, businesses can deliver a holistic customer experience that makes sure no lead goes unfollowed upon. Going forward, companies that embrace both strategies will be in a stronger position to capture and keep customers for sustained growth.
Getting More Business with Remarketing & Retargeting Services.
With increased demand for digital marketing and retargeting and remarketing services, companies can expect plenty of growth opportunities. Offering both strategies will allow service providers to appeal to businesses in every vertical—e-commerce, SaaS, retail, finance, and more. Focusing on audience segmentation, personalized outreach, and cross-channel (that is, social media) marketing will allow service providers to prove their worth, strengthen client relationships, and secure repeat business.
In addition, engagement and segmentation tools will set retargeting and remarketing providers apart from one another as they recreate themselves through investments in sophisticated analytics and customization capabilities. Businesses that are eager to maximize their digital marketing ROI will seek out providers who offer data-driven insights and targeted campaigns. When you combine retargeting and remarketing a significant step on the road that leads to outstanding results for service providers looking to grow their clients!
All in all, the difference between retargeting and remarketing can be a crucial point for businesses that want to build successful digital marketing methods. Strategically choosing the correct method or a mix of both methods companies will always succeed in re-engaging potential customers, improving conversions, and building long-term customer loyalty.
As a service provider, providing 360-degree retargeting and remarketing solutions will create business opportunities for you because they will lead you to the right door as an excellent partner in this digital marketing ecosystem moving forward.